Texas schools in limbo over $830 million in federal funds

Schools in limbo over feds' fundingPerry signs off on application, but no guarantees

ERICKA MELLON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 5:30 am, Friday, September 3, 2010

A fight between Gov. Rick Perry and Washington has left local school leaders wondering whether they will see $830 million in federal funds to help plug budget holes.

The Republican governor sent a letter this week urging the state's school superintendents to call Congress to criticize the passage of an amendment that attached strings to Texas getting the money. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Austin, sponsored the provision that singled out Texas in the $26 billion jobs protection bill.

"It's unfortunate that local school districts are being caught in the middle of the politics between the federal and the state government," said Kirk Lewis, the superintendent of the Pasadena Independent School District.

Perry initially would not commit to applying for the federal funds, but he signed off on Friday, with his education commissioner, Robert Scott, submitting the state's application to the U.S. Department of Education.

Texas, however, is not guaranteed the funding. The amendment by Doggett asks Perry to commit that the emergency federal money will not be used to replace state funds and that education funding will not be cut more than any other program through 2013.

Concerns from last year

In the state's application, Scott wrote that Texas law prohibits the Legislature from binding future state lawmakers, so the governor cannot commit to spending down the line.

"If the U.S. Department of Education approves our application, the $830 million will immediately be made available to Texas school districts," Scott wrote to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. "The intent for these funds is to add to the existing state public education appropriation for fiscal year 2011 already enacted into law."

Doggett's amendment stemmed from concerns that Texas would use the federal funds to fill budget gaps outside of education, as happened in 2009 when the education stimulus dollars melted into the state's general revenue.

Perry, in his letter to school administrators, raised doubts that Texas' application would be approved, writing that "the actions of a Texas congressman, with votes from the congressional majority, make it unlikely that your school will receive its portion of the $830 million in federal education funds this year."

Doggett said it was unnecessary to scour the Texas Constitution or old court rulings "looking for excuses to deprive our local schools of these needed dollars."

Perry, he said, only needs to give an assurance that Texas won't cut education spending by a larger proportion than other public services.

"We didn't send this federal aid for education to Texas to plug a state budget gap; we sent it to help our schoolchildren," Doggett said.

Lewis and other Houston-area superintendents said they weren't counting on the money in their budgets — though they could use it.

Houston ISD, the state's largest school system, could receive an estimated $67 million. HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said he did not expect to use the funds from the jobs bill to replace the 400 positions, most of them in central office, that were cut last year.

"In our case, we have really worked hard to right-size the organization," Grier said. "There's other allowable things to spend the money on, such as tutors, a longer school day, twilight high schools."

Criticism from union

"I wish our congressman from Texas had been just as concerned with superintendents who divert the money as he was with the governor," she said.

Alief school board member Sarah Winkler said she doubted that her district would use the federal funds to hire more permanent staff because the money might not be there in coming years. But, she said, the estimated $11 million that Alief stands to get could fund training for teachers, raises or tutoring, for example.

"We're talking a lot of money that we would love to have," Winkler said. "We know that times are about to get much tougher."

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